The day had been harsh on Louise, even though it was still early. She had woke up early, earlier than usual, and had stumbled through her normal morning procedures. Unfortunately, she had hit her big toe on the bedpost when she got out of bed, and it left a throbbing pain ever since. When she had finally getting dressed, she had accidentally ripped some of her more expensive shirts, which wouldn't have been bad, had her allowance already been running low. Lastly, when she had actually gotten dressed, and was doing her hair, the comb that she used every day got caught in her hair, and after many minuets of getting it out, a painful process, she ran into her rival Kirche!
After that, of course, her trouble didn't end, so she had to sit through the entirety of breakfast, and only then remembered her promise that she would summon the best familiar ever. Today's a terrible day! Louise screamed in her head.
But it wasn't over yet! It couldn't be over yet! So Louise, minding her own business, taking notes in the back of the class, was called out by the class's new earth teacher, and, since her pride wouldn't let her admit that she couldn't do magic, she had inadvertently blown up half the room, knocking out the teacher, ruining her clothes, and securing the duty to clean up the classroom. Without magic.
Finally, she had but one last thing to do, before going to bed and sleeping her stress away, or having it relieved because she did magic for the first time.
"Miss Louise?" called her teacher, Mr. Colbert. Walking to the center of all the students, Louise chanted her modified summoning chant, powered just as much by willpower as prayer, and, unnoticed to her, evil. "My servant somewhere in this vast existence, my powerful, beautiful, intelligent, and sacred servant, head my call, I wish from the bottom of my heart, add to my guidance and appear!" she cast, feeling her willpower drain drastically.
Version 1!
A large explosion covered the area, hiding anything from view. Though obvious sounds of rustling and muffled, squeaky, voices could be heard behind the thick smoke. There was so many, however, that Louise, or anybody else for that matter, could not tell how many there truly were.
A strong gust of wind picked up for several seconds, obviously cast by a wind mage, which revealed the familiar that had been summoned. There, were four young men, each looking almost the exact same, except for their hair, which was brown, red, green, and blue respectively. The four were kneeling, obviously aimed towards Louise. Heads down, as if in the presence of royalty.
Behind them, was an army.
Hundreds, possibly thousands of goblins, red, green, brown, even blue! Each and every one with their head bowed, kneeling just like the four boys. Then, all at once, they shouted, "Master!" They all chanted, "Overlord!" They continued. The four men stood up, "Mistress, we live to serve you." they said, absolute determination behind each of their voices.
Needless to say, Louise was slightly stunned was like saying she had a slightly explosive temper.
"What the-" the four men all walked up to her, and, grabbing her right arm, produced four black gauntlets from absolutely nowhere an stuck it on her arm. The four gloves were obviously too big, each one, even put over each other, was easily three times the size of her hand. Suddenly, however, the gloves shrunk, obviously using magic to adjust it's size to fit her hand perfectly.
When this had happened, she felt a small shock pass through her entire body, before the army, and the four, admittingly attractive, men shouted "Master! The Masta!" they shouted. Though the four boys held their toughs as though slightly ashamed. Behind her, Louise thought she heard Kirche purr.
Louise raised her hands, gesturing them to stop, and was surprised to see that every one of them simultaneously turned towards her. They were all staring at her, but seemed to be more and less focused when she waved around her arms, or, more specifically, her right arm. Testing it quickly, she found that they almost snapped to attention when she raised her right arm, and adjusted when she lowered, much like a trained army, but with goblins.
The shock largely over by now, Louise heard a voice from the crowd, "An army of goblins and a few commoners? Surely this is what fits Louise The Zero the most." the voice joked. Louise ground her teeth in frustration, before one of the four boys she summoned spoke up, "We are not goblins, fool, but Minions, magical servants to their Overlord." he huffed. The brunette boy spoke as well.
"Was that suppose to be an insult?" he asked. The girl stuttered, "Y-Yes!" she shouted indigently. The four boys stopped, then, all at once, they were in a different place. The blue haired boy was in the back, fire in one hand, and a strange black whirlpool in the other. The red haired boy was after him, having two large fireballs, each easily as big as a human head, in each hand, heat waves were coming off his body. The brown haired boy was in front of the poor girl, holding a large, black greatsword to her neck with inhuman precision. The green haired man was hard to spot, somehow almost completely invisible and in plain sight, holding two black daggers to the girl's throat.
Louise noticed this only slightly after it happened. "What are you doing!" she demanded. The four blinked, "Defending your honor?" the blue haired one supplied. Louise chose to ignore the "Killing the Master's enemy." with deliberate focus. Louise huffed, "Get off my classmate." she ordered them. The four stepped back, Blue dropped his fire and spell, Red dropping his fireballs, Brown backing up, putting up his greatsword somewhere, and gently straitening her clothes, and green taking away his daggers from her neck, sheathing them with an audible 'shing', which made the girl freak out, as she apparently hadn't noticed him.
Then the four lined up again, as the goblin/Minion things got in line as well. Louise turned to the blue haired one, as he seemed to be the scholarly type, "You, tell me, what exactly is going on here?" she asked, ignoring the fact that she should know about the familiar summoning ritual. The blue haired one looked around. "You summoned the entire Minion race, thus proving yourself heir to the powers of the Overlord. Since we knew this we put the Overlord gauntlets on you to see if you matched, to which the Tower Heart proved to be yes." he explained, a questioning look on his face.
Louise sighed, "Explain from the beginning, now." she ordered. The blue one nodded, "Brown, kill everything infesting the tower, Green, scout the area, Red, info. I'll go through the library after Master is done. Is that alright Master?" he asked. Louise waved her hand, "Sure sure." she waved the question off, not entirely sure what was happening.
Mr. Colbert coughed, "The contract, Louise." he reminded. Louise blushed, "Let's just get this over with." she sighed, turning to the brown haired boy, "I'm going to need you to kiss me to sign the contract. All four boys blushed, Brown sputtered, "Y-Y-yes your evilness!" he shouted loudly. Louise leaned in to kiss the boy, unable to see the three boys blush furiously or that red was literally biting his clothes off in frustration.
When Louise's lips finally touched Brown, however, their expressions were all changed to that of wonder. As runes were carved into the right hand of every Green Minion, and Brown, and the left hand of every Red Minion, and Green, and on the Head of every Green Minion, and Blue, and on the chest of every Blue Minion, and Red.
Every Minion, Minion Masters, and normal, examined their runes. Each had their own thoughts, ranging from Pretty! to The Master is, perhaps, too kind. Perhaps we should go kill something. I heard that helped from Gnarl. Brown, truly giddy about his obvious favor from the Overlady, had trouble controlling himself. "It's an honor, my lady." he bowed. Louise huffed, "It should be." she explained, though, in her mind her thoughts were That was my first kiss! How can I ever be married like this! At least I don't have to do it again.
The other three Minion Masters grimaced, deeply jealous of their brother.
Brown looked up, "Shall we do our tasks, Master?" he asked. Louise, still a bit flustered from the kiss, nodded.
...Time Skip...
Today, Louise was standing in front of a large tower. "This is the tower?" she asked. Blue nodded, "We need your permission to fix it any further." he explained. Louise sighed, and, raising her hand, commanded her army of ten thousand. "Fix the tower! Find it's heart and complete it! Gather every spell, and kill anything that opposes you!" she ordered, not realizing that humans may oppose her gathering such valuable magic crystals.
...Time Skip...
Louise stood in front of her mother, her four familiars standing behind her, all dressed in knight gear she did not recognize, or buy. Each of them looked good enough though, and they hadn't brought along her average Minions, mainly because she thought her mother would kill them.
She was proven right, unsurprisingly, when her mother cast her signature spell, Heavy Wind, on their wagon. The four leaped into action, Brown quickly activating his Black form and holding Derflinger, which he then used to run around the tornado at speeds not visible to the human eye. Green somehow jumped over the thing, completely ignoring the fact he should have been sucked in. Blue took one look at the thing, and immediately started chanting a counter-spell, because he could. Red let himself be partially sucked into the thing, and then used his extreme fire to melt the ground under him into lava, and throw it at the spell.
Honestly, Louise already knew the four didn't work well with each other, even if they were six thousand years old, still looking to be in their teens, and each had armies that worked fine with one another. The four were powerful enough to drop most square class mages, especially with the unnatural resistance Brown had, she saw him get a greatsword through his heart! How did he get up after that!
Still, even with the power of the Tower Heart, she didn't think that she could honestly beat one. She was lucky her predecessor made them so loyal! Eventually, she heard that she will far outpace them, they've had almost six thousand years they explained, but it still made her feel terrible.
Right now, the five of them stood in front of her mother, and the rest of her family, mostly her mother. Her mother squinted at the four "These... things are your familiars?" she asked, uncaring of their feelings. Green scowled, "Master... I do not feel comfortable in sight of such a powerful person." he informed Louise, indirectly asking if he could fade into his illusions. Louise sighed, "You can't fade away yet Green." She informed him, "You can after we convince mother to let us go to war, not a moment sooner, okay?" she ordered.
Meanwhile, the Heavy Wind contemplated how much her daughter had grown up. Strong, independent, and ordering around a small squad of strong men. Just like her mother.
The four boys stiffened, thinking. After a few seconds, Blue spoke up, "How, might I ask, would we be able to prove ourselves to you?" he asked. The Heavy Wind smiled, "You can not go to war unless each of you is able to defeat a hundred men." she stated, or, perhaps, commanded. Then, all at once, Red, Brown, and Blue smiled, "We can do that." they chorused. Green looked down questioningly, "I believe I can do that, though I work better as an Assassin." he informed them, ignoring the look of disgust the family gave him.
Louise looked down, thinking. She was not sure if she could defeat a hundred men, as any spell she could cast that could kill would require chanting, or a large portion of her mana from the Tower Heart. She could almost blast out things to stun, and she could easily just get down and stab them a few times, but she didn't think she could actually kill a hundred men, and while she knew her body was now inhumanly strong because of the Tower Heart, she knew she could only take two, maybe three hits at best before she died.
She sighed, "I think I'm up to the task." she lied.
They did surprisingly well, all things considered. Brown sliced through entire squads each hit, and was only even hit after he had already decimated half their ranks, he didn't bother using his Black form. Blue was much the same, he drew a small sword and charged in, chanting all the while, then used the magic of Nobility combined with his limited Overlord magic and Dark magic to remain almost untouchable. Red had trouble restraining to kill the humans, but settled by giving each of them second degree burns when they came within ten feet of his dome of fire. Green took the longest, having to beat them one by one, but he managed to confuse the soldiers so much that he remained largely unhurt.
Louise, however, was only able to take care of about eighty. Stunning them with her small explosions made them get back up after two of thee minutes, and the soldiers were skilled enough to know how to beat a mage. Split up, and rush them as fast as you can. The large explosions managed to get many of them out of the competition, but she had to use them selectively, as they could seriously hurt the soldiers, and they cost her a lot of willpower. Though what was really surprising was how she blatantly defied logic and took sword swings point blank and took only minor cuts.
...Time Skip...
The King Josef had not expected what he saw. Having raged a war, two, in fact, against the great country, he thought Tristian would fall. Having raged two wars, and attacked, annihilating entire cities because he could on the way, he thought Tristian would surrender. Having done all that, the last thing he expected to happen was to be stopped by a fellow Void user, leading around an army of goblins that called themselves Minions, led partially by four teen look-alikes that were older than most elves.
Even more unexpected, however, was for the four to turn their separate hair colors pitch black, and take on his entire invading force by themselves, with their master sitting calmly on a simple black throne, sipping what was apparently some fizzy drink, and not alcoholic. Even worse, is that he didn't expect them to win with such a stupid strategy. Even more so, he didn't expect them to kill him and turn him into a piece of armor, which now had magical properties.
But, even more than all of that, he didn't expect them to make a set of sentient armor, blindly following orders for hundreds of years. He didn't expect that the pink haired girl he planned on manipulating to somehow turn immortal, or for her to eventually turn that piece of armor into a small, black Minion.
It was quite surprising for her to make me The Minion Master. he chuckled, unable to truly affect the world outside, but able to see and hear it, so that he never lost any more sanity.
...Form 2...
NonononononononoNO! Brown screamed in his head, running at top speed, in his Black form to reach it, the only thing that kept them alive for so long, the Brown Hive. Without it, his chances of winning were almost none, but, even more than that, the chance of his Overlord winning would drastically decrease.
As he was almost there, however, only a few feet away, with only half a second, a feat he could cover in his normal form, Brown was hit by something he couldn't see, a strange, blue blast of energy. NO! The Brown Minion Master screamed in his head.
...In another plane of existence...
In front of Louise, she heard faint shuffling. At least a hundred things stood on the other side of the smoke, or, perhaps, something with a hundred bodies. After a moment, a gust of wind blew through the area, blowing the smoke away.
In front of her, was a single male, dressed in light armor, or, very few heavy armor pieces. He looked like some disgraced knight, actually. Behind him, was a small army of brown goblins. Each copied his position, but seemed to have trouble holding it, and, now that she looked closer, she could see that many of them had very serious injuries, ranging from absolutely covered in scratches and bruises to missing limbs.
The brunet boy raised his head up at her, "Master, we live to serve you." he stated, before on of the goblins besides him fell over, a large gash evident in it's back. The brunet scowled, "Get up, Legendre." he growled. The brown goblin slowly tried to get up, before falling back on it's face. "Ca~nt~." it moaned back. The brown haired boy looked at the minion, "Ahh. I see." he nodded, before violently jerking the minion up and plunging his hand through the brown goblin's heart.
Throwing it on the ground, the brunet squashed it's head into the dirt, getting it's, very, very, small brains all over the ground. Louise felt sick. The brunet then waved his hand over the goblin, somehow piecing it back together. The brown thing got up, and stood back in line.
A second later, the brunet boy raised his head, "Master, would you like your gauntlet now?" he asked. Louise, not quite sure what was going on, nodded blankly. The boy pulled out a black, incomplete gauntlet with a fractured shard in the middle. "This is your gauntlet, with it you can control the Minions more precisely." he explained. "By summoning us, do you agree to be the third candidate for the Overlord?" the teen asked.
Louise huffed, "Your my familiars, so whatever I have to do to keep you is expected of a good Master." Brown smiled.
...Time Skip...
"There are four types of minions." Brown explained. "Browns, which you control, are hardy and, generally easy to create. Since you summoned us without the Brown Minion Hive, you are currently unable to make more. The other two Overlord Candidates do not have this weakness, but, since I can resurrect any fallen Minions, and Browns are the hardiest, I believe that we could win if we attacked the Greens soon, or if we are able to find the Blue Master. However, since those were the two that were attacking us as we were being summoned, it is safe to say we can only beat one of them as of now." the newly identified Brown Minion Master, name Brown, explained.
Louise lay back on her bed. "Fine. Is there a way to become the Overlord without having to kill the masters of the three?" she asked. Brown nodded, "If one of them surrender, or is resurrected by the other side, they will follow you. So if their Overlord is subdued and he tells them to surrender, then you have also become their master, weather you kill their former master or not, though I would recommend cleaning out the competition." Brown explained.
Louise sighed, before thinking back. "You said that there was two Candidates already active right?" she asked. Brown nodded. "Then what about the other, untouched Minion type?" she asked. Brown nodded, "Very perceptive Master, I did forget to explain that. Right now the Blues, Reds, and Browns have been summoned, in that order. But the Greens, the assassins have never been summoned. Instead, they remain in the tight control of Green, their Minion Master." Brown explained.
Louise stared at him. "Are all the Minion Masters named after their color?" she asked. Brown tilted his head slightly, "Our creator, the last Overlord, did not name us after his imprisonment, instead, he gave the next Overlord the choice to do so. If you would like, you could change mine, or the others that we capture." he explained.
Louise got sat up, slightly worried, "And what about these Greens. You said that they were assassins, correct?" she asked. Brown nodded, his brown hair waving on his head, "Yes." he answered, not seeing her point. "But you also mentioned that they smelled terrible, how does that work, and can I use it to detect them?" she asked. Brown nodded in understanding. "Greens smell bad for magical, unknown reasons. They are still effective assassins, however, because of their natural-born skill, and their ability to turn invisible when they focus on it." he explained. "You can smell them, but if they kill you, they'll probably have to drop their invisibility, which would allow me or one of the other browns to intercept, so if you die from them, it would probably be in a straight fight, not assassination." Brown explained.
Louise sighed in relief, before asking a new question. "So, why are the Minions battling to see the next Overlord?" she questioned. Brown smiled, "The Tower heart informed us that the next Overlord could be four different people, and decided to split it's power between the four of you and have you fight each-other." he answered. Louise, shocked, yelled, "Why would it do that!" Brown's smile faded, "The power of the Tower Heart is immense, capable of completely stopping death by natural causes, and multiplying one's strength and magic. Or unlocking their magic, or just giving them enough power to fight immortals." he answered, "In fact, Overlords have historically died to a large group of powerful heroes, or fighting off entire evasions alone. It's said the fourth Overlord still lives as the master of the Netherworld.
"Ohh, and you said your last Overlord was imprisoned, right? Who imprisoned him?" she asked, not waiting for an answer. Brown smiled at his Master's spirit, though was slightly saddened by the question. "Some mage named Brimir." he shrugged, "Huh!"
...Time Skip...
Today, Brown did his best to win the competition, knowing his master wished him to. He had almost twenty minions doing various things from riding wolves he caught to throwing fire, to doing back flips. Overall, it was very impressive, with his dashing around, throwing daggers, slicing and his other various tricks. Princess Henrietta, who his master had told to not kidnap seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. As he was about to throw up several fireballs for the other browns to throw daggers into, their accuracy improved when his master put in her runes, however, the act was interrupted by a large shake.
Seeing his master rush towards it, Brown followed, leaving the other, non-controlled minions to continue the act. Reaching his master in slightly over a second, Brown spotted his enemies. "Greens! Your orders?" he asked. Louise yelled, "Kill them as we run by, but down slow me down!" she commanded, her gauntlet glowing. Brown grinned. "Yes Master!"
...Time Skip...
Brown stood in front of the two armies, the Brown Minions, and the 70000 human soldiers, along with about five thousand Green Minions, and Green himself, and roared. Activating his Black form and taking out Derflinger and the Overlord's Blade, Brown duel wielded both. Raising The Overlord's Blade, he shouted, "For the Master! For the Mistress! For the Overlady!" he shouted, before rushing at the soldiers.
...Time Skip...
Louise was crying, "They've died! I've lost!" she sniffled, "I'm going to die!" she sobbed. Her older sister, Cattleya cuddled her, "You're not going to die Louise. Even if something does happen to you, I, as well as Eleonore and Mother will all protect you." she smiled, trying to comfort Louise.
A knock interrupted the two of them. "Come in." Cattleya called. An aged butler stepped in politely, "A visitor is here to see you, Miss Louise." Louise sat up. "What's he look like?" she asked. The butler thought a moment, "About five seven, thin build. "He answered. Louise perked up, but thought better of it, "His hair color?" she asked timidly. The butler thought another moment, "Green."
Louise shrunk back. "Is he the one?" Cattleya asked. Louise nodded. "You can always deny him." Catteya tried. Louise shook her head, "No, he could easily break in, if he wanted. I'd better just get this over with." she sniffed.
Walking down the long halls and rooms, Louise wondered if she would die. The fate of her familiar Brown, and whether or not Green would accept a surrender.
When she finally got to the main hall however, where her family met visitors, she was surprised to see her entire army all ninety Brown Minions that had survived the attacks on her life, almost three thousand Green Minions, and a what looked to be the Minion Hive Brown had described, but pure green.
Green, the greatest threat she had ever faced, bowed to her. "As I have been defeated by your servant Brown, my new Life is yours. I am the Green Minion Master, you are now the ruler of the Browns and Greens, Master." he bowed, before clutching his left hand, as runes were carved into it.
...Time Skip...
With the death of her familiar Brown, and the gain of her familiar Green, the rebellion in Albion died down. Having lost over half their army to goblins, Brimir's wrath was claimed to have been against them.
A new discovery was soon made. To find a proper king following the Reconquista's surrender. Soon, the ex-secretary was freed from jail, and put as the queen, though she needed to find a husband soon if she wanted to keep her power, and she sent her half sister down to study magic at her old work place. This had nothing to do with Henrietta urging her to, nothing at all. Knowing of Louise, she had put the young girl in charge of her sister.
She was paid pretty well, and it wasn't like she actually had to do anything but assign five Greens to follow her around, so Louise accepted. The extra political power was stunning, and secured her with a small trickle of lifeforce, but no one had to know that.
Louise enjoyed her new-found, seemingly endless supply of Minions, but she still missed her original familiar, Brown. Green assured her that they would probably meet again, whether it was as her servant, or following the enemy that revived him, but Louise wasn't so sure.
That was why she was so shocked at the sight in front of her. In front of her, was a half-elf, fellow Void user, fellow Overlord Candidate, master of Brown. She only had Brown, admittingly, but from what Green told her about their battle, he was probably stronger than her current forces.
"Hello, Mas-Miss Louise. I am currently serving under Miss Westwood." he explained, holding his right hand, where their use to be his runes, now was plain skin. "I apologize for the inconvenience."
Louise felt her magic gather around her, with twice the dark power she had before, she felt like could take on this Westwood, before Green asked, "Master, should we kill them?" Louise sighed, "No, but when Brown dies, be sure to resurrect him as fast as you can!" she ordered him.
...Time Skip...
It was a hostage situation, but the plan was simple. Green, as someone who could hide their body heat, sound, and become invisible, would sneak in through a window where the others were kept, as Louise showered them with her magic, forcing them to flee towards the door, where the Musket Knights would burst in and shoot them, Green killing their leader, a powerful fire mage.
That plan was stopped, however, when Red revealed that he had somehow snuck into the room without any of them noticing, as a student no less! He suddenly threw two fireballs, each the size of a human head, at two soldiers, killing them instantly, before punching through the chest of the one holding him down, before burning all of the soldiers holding down the students with controlled flames.
He then challenged the fire mage into a one-on-one duel, which he obviously won, because he was immune to fire, and had a massive amount off strength.
The Brown killed every other soldier, by himself.
...Time Skip...
King Joseph did not expect to lose. As the long time master of the Blues, who could learn magic, he thought he would surely win. With each Blue Minion either a dot, or a line class mage, and Blue himself easily being a square class, with the ability to cast every type of magic at such a level, he thought he would win. With the Brown Minion Hive in his hand, he knew victory was assured. Having the other three raise against him alone was expected, and stoppable. But he didn't account for one thing.
Brown, Green and Red, were just as strong as Blue. Even with magic, and countless artifacts, Blue could only stall two, so Brown ran off, ignoring logic, and broke into his treasury. He though this was an act of betrayal, which one would expect from four armies of Darkness fighting against one another, instead, he took the entire collection of Firestones, and returned, shoving them down Red's throat. Apparently, that somehow gave Red the energy to single-handedly fight off Blue, while Brown and Green rushed to confront him.
It was hard, but with his Speed spell, and the extra strength the Overlord's Gauntlet gave him, he was able to stab them both enough to cause major damage. Finally, when both were down completely, seemingly defeated, Green ran with all his might, and ran out the window.
Joseph only heard one thing before he died. "Explosion!"
Then he was reborn, as a Blue, and a Brown, and a Green, and a Red, and a Minion Master.
Louise, now looking to be in her mid twenties, but almost three hundred years old, smiled. "It's good to have you back, competitor. I should tell you, you are the next Brown Minion Master, but you'll have to wait a few thousand years for Brown to die of old age." she explained, before raising her gauntlet, now complete.
And everything was gone, for thirty thousand years.